New Zealand Verse/Mutability
CXLVIII.
Mutability.
Here all is change, and life a deep unrest;
So say the waves that break upon the shore,
The shifting sands that drift for evermore,
The ever-moving crowd that seem possessed
Of souls Unquiet as the waves, but blest
With heedlessness of all that lies before,
For none may know what changes are in store:
We can but dream them on soft nature's breast.
Yet, ’neath the waves there dwells eternal calm:
Delve deep the sand, and to the rock it brings:
The inconstant crowd is voiceful of the soul,
Which liveth alway, an unfading palm,
Drawing its life from deep, divinest springs
That shall not fail while stars and systems roll.
So say the waves that break upon the shore,
The shifting sands that drift for evermore,
The ever-moving crowd that seem possessed
Of souls Unquiet as the waves, but blest
With heedlessness of all that lies before,
For none may know what changes are in store:
We can but dream them on soft nature's breast.
Yet, ’neath the waves there dwells eternal calm:
Delve deep the sand, and to the rock it brings:
The inconstant crowd is voiceful of the soul,
Which liveth alway, an unfading palm,
Drawing its life from deep, divinest springs
That shall not fail while stars and systems roll.